Things to do in Kea

Kea is an hour from Athens and looks nothing like the Cyclades postcard, and its signature is not a beach but a footpath. That single fact reorganises everything a visitor might do here.

The path network, which is the island’s real draw. The Municipality of Kea puts it at about 81 km over 12 marked routes: stone-paved ways that once linked the island’s four ancient city-states and now run through oak woods, terraces, chapels and monasteries down to remote coves. On an island this close to Athens that is an unusual thing to find, and it is why walkers keep coming back.

Two walks give you the shape of it. The Korissia to Ioulida to Otzias loop is the classic taste, tying the port, the capital and a north-coast bay into one manageable day. The Ioulida to Karthea route is the big one, dropping across the island to the ancient site on the far coast.

The Lion of Kea, which most walkers aim for first. The Liontas is a large lion carved directly into the island’s bedrock, dated to around the sixth century BC and wearing the faint archaic smile of its period, reached on a short waymarked path just below Ioulida. It is the single best short walk here.

Ancient Karthea, which is the payoff at the end of a longer one. Karthaia was the most important of Kea’s four city-states, and its ruins stand on the remote southeastern coast above an empty bay: a Doric temple to Athena, an Apollo sanctuary and a stone theatre. There is no road to the door. You arrive on foot on the signed paths that drop down from the Kato Meria side of the island, with the municipality pointing walkers in from Ellinika and from Chimoniki, or you come by boat. Treat it as a proper walk in and back, so time it, carry water and start early.

Agia Irini, and a past deeper than one site. The settlement near Vourkari was lived in from the final Neolithic period through the end of the Bronze Age, and was walled in the Middle Bronze Age with towers and a central gate. The Archaeological Museum in Ioulida holds its finds, including the Middle Cycladic clay female figurines in their bell-shaped skirts.

The museum’s hours, which are worth checking. The culture ministry runs it on separate winter and summer hours with a fixed weekly closing day, so check its current listing before you build a day around it rather than trusting a time you found in advance.

Panagia Kastriani, the monastery standing on a cliff on the northeast coast, completes the short list of set-piece stops.

When to walk, and what to carry. Spring or autumn rather than high-summer midday, and carry water, because some stretches give little shade. That is the island’s own advice and it is the difference between the good version of a Kea day and a hard one. Hiking in Greece is the country picture, and the spread-out trailheads raise the vehicle question covered in which islands need a car. Our Kea guide has the practicalities and the beaches sort by access.